We won’t let them destroy our dreams
We won’t let them destroy our dreams.
Statement by Cuban youth in response to the disrespectful and absurd words of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the OAS General Assembly
Posted: Tuesday 05 June 2018 | 09:41:40 PM
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelce.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
FEU Author: Roberto Suárez Published: 05/06/2018 | 09:27 pm
History repeats itself. Arrogance, ignorance of Cuban reality and contempt for the peoples of Our America, lead once again to unacceptable, lying and manipulative statements in the mouth, this time by the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, during the OAS General Assembly, which was well defined by Cuban Foreign Minister Raul Roa Garcia as the United States Ministry of Colonies.
They are wrong again and this character makes a fool of himself when he talks about the lack of opportunities for Cuban youth and questions our rights and options for building the future. This is a gross provocation because, even for someone like him, it would be impossible to ignore the revolutionary conquests that have allowed our children, adolescents and young people to grow and develop showing impressive and irrefutable human development indices, within a society that listens, protects and empowers them.
He speaks of supporting young people and he does so on behalf of the government that is applying a criminal blockade that is widely rejected and condemned by the entire world. It’s the blockade which is responsible for limitations and shortcomings that have a direct impact on the very young people he is now hypocritically trying to defend. He offends with the double standards of those who have given support and refuge to those responsible for terrorist acts that have caused the death and physical incapacity of hundreds of young people throughout the revolutionary process.
We ask ourselves: Why does Mr Pompeo not ask for support for the millions of young people in this region – the most unequal on the planet – who are victims of unemployment, violence, disease, discrimination and extreme poverty?
The Secretary of State cynically advocates the realization of young Cuban talent by pretending that someone believes in his words, when a simple visit to Cuba or a consultation with the statistics of any international organization of education, science and culture would be enough to deny it: Thousands of doctors, hundreds of talented scientists, renowned artists in all their manifestations, champions in sport, teachers of international merit and dozens of other girls and boys of this land destroy the laughable fallacy of Pompeii.
Cuba hurts them. They know that they have not been and will not be able to reverse our history. They have witnessed the magnificent act of sovereignty that constituted the electoral process in our country, as a result of which the new generations have nurtured all levels of government, reaffirming continuity and destroying the dreams of political change that will allow them to once again be the masters of this island.
We are a generation full of motivation. They will never be able to manipulate us, nor put us at the service of imperialism and its lackeys. We are children of mambisa lineage and of a dignity learned from our historical leaders. We are the owners of our streets, those where today we walk in peace and security. We will not allow them to destroy our dreams; all our forces and energies are at the service of the Revolution.
Young Communist League
Dangerous Errands
Dangerous Errands
Package agencies, which do not have official contracts with Cuban companies, are engaged in the illegal trafficking of goods from abroad. For this purpose, they use the route of passengers who accept to bring different products in exchange for payment or compensation. The General Customs of the Republic faces these phenomena with rigor and intelligence
Posted: Wednesday 06 June 2018 | 10:08:01 PM
By Yuniel Labacena Romero
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Dangerous Errands Author: LAZ Published: 06/06/2018 | 09:15 pm
TRANSLATION: “But officer, I swear I didn’t know this was here!”
To date, 113 cases have been detected of goods traffic sent by 29 illegal parcel delivery agencies from abroad. There have been four reports of smuggling associated with this phenomenon, and more than three tons of products of various types have been confiscated which had tried to enter the country through these networks, the General Customs of the Republic (AGR) reported Wednesday.
Colonel Wiliam Pérez González, deputy chief of the AGR, explained that these are agencies that do not have official contracts with Cuban companies authorized to carry out these operations, and that for this purpose they use the route of encomiendas (internationally prohibited) to passengers, who accept to bring the goods in exchange for payment or compensation.
He added that this action poses a high risk, since sometimes passengers, and often even the same recipient in Cuba, are unaware of the contents of the packages, and when transporting them they may be involved in cases of trafficking in drugs and other illegal materials.
This phenomenon generates the greatest acts of corruption within the AGR, in addition to showing features of organization and impunity, from the networks developed in the country for the commercialization of goods. For all these reasons, he said, the various illegal trafficking networks related to goods are being tackled with rigor and intelligence.
Perez Gonzalez explained that, despite repeated warnings, cases continue to be detected of passengers who, without knowing, carry prohibited items as part of their luggage, thereby incurring violations or crimes punishable under current legislation.
On this subject, in April of this year, a note published on the Customs website (www.aduana.gob.cu) referred to the fact that in the cases discovered, travellers “did not know the contents of the packages”, brought “in exchange for payment made by parcel delivery agencies” dedicated to this activity “without complying with the provisions established in Cuba”, or those of the country of origin.
It also explained that since these are articles sent to third parties by agencies, “their importation acquires a commercial character”, which is prohibited by Cuban customs regulations, and “subject to the administrative sanction of confiscation, if there is no more serious crime”.
At the same time, Customs advised travellers to “refrain from being part of the chain of illegal importation of goods” which unauthorised offices “promote with commercial and enrichment interest” in order to speed up their stay at the border.
Since October 2017, the list of customers with whom the UEB Agencia Aduanal and Transitaria Palco have a parcel and service contract for the shipment of non-commercial cargo of legal trade and origin, as well as the shipping companies with which they have a contractual relationship, has been published on the aforementioned website.
Dear passenger…
What do you need to know about Customs when you arrive in Cuba?
Native-born persons, in their capacity as passengers, are not authorised to carry parcels for other natural or legal persons.
As parcels are understood those goods, packages and packages sent from abroad to third parties using the passenger to transport them.
What risks can be taken with the parcels?
They can be used for the movement and masking of substances and articles used in terrorism, drug trafficking operations and smuggling of goods, which can endanger security, human health and the environment.
The passenger who is the carrier of an order assumes the administrative or criminal responsibility derived from the breach of this regulation.
Some illegal agencies
According to Customs, among the 20 illegal agencies established in the United States are XAEL Habana, Ramiro Miltservice, Va Cuba, Cubamax Travel, Viajes Coppelia, Habana Air, Blue Cuba Travels, Xcellende Travel, Miramar Havana Corp, Rapid Multiservices, Managua Travel, Cubana Service, Caribe Express, Tocororo Travel, Mi Número Local (formerly Cuba Llama) and Central America Cargo.
Notes on shipments
For customs purposes, Shipments shall be understood to be all those received using the services provided by companies and entities expressly authorized for this purpose, either by post or courier, or by using air or sea freight, the latter by air waybill or bill of lading, as appropriate.
Shipments may not contain:
Hidden items to circumvent customs control.
Articles of the same type which, irrespective of their quantity and value, are presumed to be of a commercial nature.
Items whose value, individually or as a whole, exceeds the shipping limit of 200 pesos.
Cash and securities of any kind.
Pornography or other articles that violate morals, good manners or internal order.
Household appliances that are not allowed to be imported.
Equipment requiring prior approval from the Control and Supervision Agency of the Ministry of Informatics and Communications:
Articles of animal or plant origin prohibited by sanitary, phytosanitary and veterinary authorities.
Cuban Customs projections for 2018
Customs, x-ray and luggage area of Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport. Havana. Cuba. PHOTO: Roberto Suárez
Continue to strengthen the system of customs confrontation and improve actions to minimize acts of corruption and crime under a preventive, prophylactic and conscious refusal approach.
Continue to make progress on the technological modernization project to enable the timely detection of acts that threaten national security.
To promote the integral development of the training, qualification, certification and categorization of the forces (Intermediate Technician and Higher Intermediate Technician in Customs).
Continue work on computerization and improvement of customs processes (one-stop shop, authorised economic operators, etc.).
To promote institutional communication actions aimed at the internal and external public.
Children and the Pied Piper
Children and the Pied Piper of Hamelin
Author: Julio César Sánchez Guerra
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
In an old legend, back in 1284, the city of Hamelin was infested with rats. A stranger appeared and proposed to free them from such undesirable company in exchange for a reward. The people accepted the deal, the man played a flute and brought out all the mice, who then followed the flutist, who took them to the Weiser River, where they drowned. Then the people refused to pay the reward. The flutist returned one day in June and, in an act of revenge, with the music of the flute he took all the children who came after him to a cave from from where they never returned.
Fables hide stories and symbols. Has the pied piper returned to look for the children? Today a strange “music” threatens to take them away and rob them of their innocence in one fell swoop.
From an early age they are subjected to adult language. They consume songs marked by high doses of sex, video games and audiovisuals that stimulate the culture of violence…. From the room where they play connected by Zapya one says happily: “I’ve already killed more than 30!».
Now some families prepare the girls for the mini-quinceaneras where they are dressed in clothes that are not proper for their age; as if their parents were saying to their children: “Fly, fly, it’s time for you to grow up!” On the other hand, a globalizing wave of brands and manufactured customs seduces them with omnipresent toys.
Faced with these realities, the family, school, society… have new cultural challenges. How can we educate our children today? You can’t answer with prescriptions. But it is not from the “pedagogy of the cry” or confusing children with the grass that grows alone. We cannot forget Martí’s warnings: “The street is guilty when it does not educate”.
Let’s encourage habit of reading and the ability to astonish. Since when do we not put our children to sleep by reading them a story? Or do we prefer that they sleep with their cell phones in their hands? Let us teach with all our strength the mystery of the poem The Two Miracles, from the Golden Age, where nature is saved by the kiss of a child to a butterfly.
Let us always return to our children the country of the wonders and powers of imagination, the one that my Saharawi brother Abdel Mayí taught me in a book of his culture and colonised country, a book called Tales under the Jaima.
The teacher came into the classroom threatening all the children: “You have two minutes to paint on your blackboards a bird and a tree; if you don’t do it in that time, I’ll kneel you down facing the wall, get to work! The children painted desperately. As the two minutes passed, the master struck a blow on the table. “Time’s up: raise your boards!” In all of them there was a tree and a bird, but a child at the end of the classroom had only one tree. The teacher prepared to give the punishment, and with rage asked, “Where is your bird? The boy, with his face full of magic elves, replied: “Teacher, when you hit the table, the bird was frightened and flew away”.
Let’s feed the children with the bird that always flies, with the music that beats the pied piper so that this time it leaves our children at home, and in our souls, a song with our childhood intact.
REVIEW: Vicki Huddleston’s Cuba memoir
Comments by By Dr. Néstor García Iturbe Translated and edited for CubaNews The first commentary on this book refers to what is printed on the cover as it is announced as “a diplomat´s chronicle of America´s long struggle with Castrós Cuba”, which does not reflect the reality of what is presented in the book. Part 1 of the book recounts Vicki Huddleston’s stay at the State Department’s Office of Cuban Affairs from 1989 to 1993. In referring to this stage, the author failed to take into account 30 years of aggression by the United States against Cuba, including the beginning and strengthening of the economic blockade, the invasion by the Bay of Pigs, the Missile Crisis and the thousands of terrorist activities and sabotage that Cuba suffered during those thirty years. That’s actually an important part of “Americás long struggle with Castro´s Cuba.” The correct thing would have been for the cover to show that the chronicle to which reference is made only from 1989 onwards, since in the way it is written it seems to have been written to cover the whole period since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. In the first chapter she gives us a sample of the alliance between the U.S. government with the worst of the Cuban exiles, mainly with the Cuban American National Foundation and the Brothers to the Rescue [BTTR]. It presents the latter as an almost philanthropic organization dedicated to rescuing rafters, when it repeatedly violated Cuban airspace to launch propaganda and explosive devices. The author herself reports that, as a State Department official, in some of these violations of Cuban airspace, she travelled as a passenger on one of the BTTR planes. This is an example of something that an U.S. government official is not supposed to do. In her book, Mrs. Huddleston tries to describe, according to her, the police regime in Cuba, especially organized by the State Security, which she says does not miss any movement of foreign diplomats. Assuming that the author was totally convinced of what she said, we could describe what she sees as naïve during Illinois Governor George Ryan’s visit to Cuba. She states that during his stay she prepared a meeting attended by various ambassadors, and several of the so-called “dissidents”. And that in order to be able to speak freely, at the end of the meal she offered in her home, she waited for the servants to leave the room where they were gathered to begin the testimonies and opinions of each of them. If Cuban security has such a broad and efficient control, how many microphones would there be in the premises selected by Mrs. Huddleston to hold the secret meeting? The interference in Cuba’s internal affairs is also recognized by the former ambassador, when in a meeting with Colin Powell, she told him how she carried out actions with dissident groups, private libraries and independent journalists, adding that if they had more resources they would do much more. What would be the attitude of the U.S. government if Cuba or another nation were to begin to foment opposition for the purpose of overthrowing the established regime? Is that the right attitude of a diplomat representing his country to another? The book, at least, gathers the maneuvers and activities carried out by the United States against Cuba in order to destroy the Cuban Revolution. A true compendium of illegalities, dirty maneuvers, violations of diplomatic law, conspiracies and interference by the United States in Cuba’s internal affairs. A better title for the book would have been “Our Crook in Havana”. June 6, 2018
Comentarios del Dr. Néstor García Iturbe El primer comentario sobre este libro se refiere a lo que tiene impreso en la cubierta pues se anuncia como “a diplomat´s chronicle of America´s long struggle with Castrós Cuba”, lo cual no refleja la realidad de lo que se expone en el libro. La parte 1 del mencionado libro relata la estancia de Vicki Huddleston en la oficina de Asuntos Cubanos del Departamento de Estado a partir de 1989 hasta 1993. Al referirse a esa etapa el autor ha dejado de tomar en consideración 30 años de agresiones de Estados Unidos hacia Cuba, lo que incluye el inicio y fortalecimiento del bloqueo económico, la invasión por Bahía de Cochinos, la Crisis de los Misiles y miles de actividades terroristas y sabotajes que durante esos treinta años Cuba sufrió. Esa es en realidad una parte importante de “Americás long struggle with Castro´s Cuba.” Lo correcto hubiera sido que en la cubierta apareciera que la crónica a la que se hace referencia e solamente a partir de 1989, pues en la forma en que está redactado parece que fuera durante todo el período desde el inicio de la Revolución Cubana. En el primer capítulo nos da una muestra de la alianza del gobierno estadounidense con lo peor del exilio cubano, principalmente con la Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana y con los Hermanos al Rescate mostrando estos últimos como una organización casi filantrópica dedicada rescatar balseros, cuando la misma en repetidas oportunidades violó el espacio aéreo cubano para lanzar propaganda y artefactos explosivos. La propia autora relata que siendo funcionaria del Departamento de Estado, en algunas de esas violaciones del espacio aéreo cubano viajó como pasajera en uno de los aviones. Una muestra de algo que supuestamente no debe hacer un funcionario oficial del gobierno estadounidense. En su libro la señora Huddleston trata de describir, según ella, el régimen policiaco en que se vive en Cuba especialmente organizado por la Seguridad del Estado, que según ella no le pierde movimiento alguno a los diplomáticos. Partiendo de que la autora estuviera totalmente convencida de lo que dice, pudiéramos calificar de ingenuo lo que describe durante la visita a Cuba del Gobernador George Ryan. Plantea que durante la estancia del mismo preparó una reunión a la que asistieron distintos embajadores, varios de los llamados “disidentes” y que para poder hablar libremente, al terminar la comida que ofreció en su casa, esperó a que los sirviente abandonaran la habitación donde estaban reunidos para comenzar los testimonios y opiniones de cada uno. ¿Si la seguridad cubana tiene un control tan amplio y eficiente, cuantos micrófonos habría en el local seleccionado por la señora HUDDLESTON para efectuar la reunión secreta? La injerencia en los asuntos internos de Cuba también es reconocida por la ex embajadora, cuando en una reunión con Collin Powell, le relataba como realizaba acciones con grupos disidentes, bibliotecas privadas y periodistas independientes, agregando que si tuvieran mas recursos harían mucho mas actividades. ¿Cuál sería la actitud del gobierno de Estados Unidos si Cuba u otra nación comenzara a fomentar la oposición con el propósito de derrocar el régimen establecido? ¿Es esa la actitud correcta de un diplomático que representa a su país ante otro? El libro, al menos, recoge las maniobras y actividades realizadas por Estados Unidos contra Cuba con el fin de destruir la Revolución Cubana. Un verdadero compendio de ilegalidades, maniobras sucias, violaciones a lo establecido en el Derecho Diplomático, conspiraciones e injerencia por parte de Estados Unidos en los asuntos internos de Cuba. El mejor titulo para el libro “Our crook in Havana. 6 de junio 2018
Our Woman in Havana by Vicki Huddleston
by Walter Lippmann.
Our Woman in Havana por Vicki Huddleston
Where Will US Domestic Politics Go?
Where Will US Domestic Politics Go?
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The surprising performance of veteran Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential elections and the disappointing performance at the top post by the unpredictable Donald Trump have stimulated a very large part of the US public – especially (but not only) Democratic Party supporters – to believe that the United States needs a Sanders and a new party.
Many of those who reason in this way believe that the old Vermont politician should take up the challenge to defeat Trump in 2020, with or without the backing of the machinery of the historic “donkey” party. Others feel that the energy of a younger leader who would take up the ideological banner of the old Sanders, with the support of a new party with or without Bernie, should be available.
These and many other variations have in common the assumption that the current President Donald Trump has already dug the grave of the Republican party and his own with his performance in the first two years of his catastrophic term.
According to the most credible polls, about 60% of U.S. voters in general, and nearly 80% of those who are not affiliated with either of the two major parties, are in favor of the emergence of a new party of majorities.
Writing in the Huffington Post, September 27 of last year, writer and journalist Gail Mellor quoted Sanders’ words calling for “the unity of the vast majority of Americans to survive together, because if we start divided, we will not succeed”. However, she recalls that at least four times in the last two years, when she has been ready to start up a new progressive party, it has been Bernie himself who has blocked it.
According to Mellor, Sanders has been working to unify the deeply-divided and corrupt Democratic party – to which he himself does not belong – but, in practice, his position has not contributed to the rise of a new progressive political force with the potential to come to the forefront of the country’s leadership. This is because he has insisted on the survival of the Democratic Party with a different set of policies as a prerequisite.
The main support Bernie Sanders had when he aspired to the White House came from “Generation Y,” also called “the millennials,” names demographers and researchers give to people born between 1980 and the early years of the new 21st century, who represent 28% of United States voters today.
He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 because young progressives from that party dragged him into an effort to clean up U.S. politics, end ongoing wars, restore social safety nets and confront climate change. They had not been able to recruit someone at the national level of the Democratic or Republican parties to lead the fight for this agenda who was not receiving money from global corporations.
Sanders, an independent (non-partisan), had held state and federal office without party or corporate backing for 42 years. Despite being a convincing, passionate and well-informed politician, he was a stranger at the national level.
It was the millennials of the Democratic Party and its environment, the supporters of the country’s withdrawal from imperialist activity, of a policy of cultural and political change, and of the reorientation toward social democracy, who made him a national public figure and led him to compete for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House.
Although formally independent, Bernie acted as a Democrat because he was aware that the two dominant parties of the system had closed access to the Presidency of the nation to anyone who did not do so through them. The Democrats welcomed Sanders as their candidate because he gave the party’s primary campaign an illusion of competition that would help its already elected candidate to legitimize herself.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) calculated that Hillary Clinton would easily beat Trump because she had a huge amount of corporate money, while Sanders, with the support of young progressives, was able to gather, in a short time, large crowds for Hillary Clinton campaign rallies.
It seems obvious that Sanders dreams of the possibility of taking the Democratic Party over, at the head of a vigorous minority movement. This would not be an easy thing to achieve but there remains the alternative, feared by the neoliberals of the party, of going on to the formation of a new independent progressive party.
June 4, 2018.
MDC Meets Jeff Flake and Google President
Diaz-Canel Receives U.S. Senator Jeff Flake and Google President Eric Schmidt
During their meeting, they exchanged views on the status of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States, as well as possible areas of cooperation of mutual interest.
Posted: Monday 04 June 2018 | 03:03:04 PM
By Juventud Rebelde
digital@juventudrebelde.cu
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Diaz-Canel received U.S. Senator Jeff Flake and Google President Eric Schmidt Author: Revolution Studies Published: 06/04/2018 | 02:58 pm
President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, received Republican Senator Jeff Flake and Google’s Executive President Eric Emerson Schmidt on Monday afternoon. During the meeting, they exchanged views on the status of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States, as well as possible areas of cooperation of mutual interest. The distinguished visitors were accompanied by the United States Chargé d’affaires in Cuba, His Excellency Philip Goldberg. On the Cuban side, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and the United States Director General of the Foreign Ministry, Carlos Fernández de Cossío Domínguez, were present.
Six Minutes and Twenty Seconds
SOMOS JOVENES
Six Minutes and Twenty Seconds
By Gisselle Morales
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Photo: Internet
She may not be communist, as the National Rifle Association has begun to call her. It is most likely that he is not a communist, to be clear, but neither does she have to be a communist for me to admire the determination with which she has stood up for arms control. Her name is Emma González and she is a descendant of Cubans.
She wasn’t supposed to go through what happened, crouched in what a madman did in high school with a combat weapon. Nor should she have become the leader of a movement that demands the right to life over the right – “blessed be the Second Amendment” – to own and bear arms. Politicians over the age of eighteen should be responsible for ensuring the safety of citizens.
“If the president comes to tell me in my face that he regrets this tragedy, which should not have happened, I would ask him how much money he receives from the National Rifle Association,” she had cried out to the crowd outside the Fort Lauderdale Federal Court, just days after the massacre, to ask the government for regulations to stop the lucrative arms trade.
But Trump, who often has the delicacy of a hippopotamus, didn’t think it would be a good idea to ban the sale of automatic rifles to citizens with psychiatric histories. The first thing that came to his mind – and he shot off his mouth without thinking too much – was the proposal to distribute weapons to teachers and students, bulletproof vests. After that, turn it off and let’s go.
Luckily, Emma Gonzalez and the rest of Parkland’s survivors have it made it clear: they had warned about Nikolas Cruz’s mental problems and are sure that the nineteen-year-old boy would not have done so much damage with a knife.
It is true that spooky assaults do exist, because some people cut themselves and even kill themselves with machetes and knives at popular festivities or in any corner fights, but there is no comparison between the magnitude of both types of killings.
That is why, on Saturday, March 24, 2018, while young people, adults, the elderly and children were demonstrating in the main American cities, and in cities around the world the, rise of the pacifist movement gave it a universal character. Emma González, wearing an olive green jacket with a Cuban flag sewn on her right shoulder, stood in front of the microphone in Washington and was silent; a silence of almost six minutes and twenty seconds, just the time it took the shooter to kill seventeen students and traumatize a school, a city, a state, a country forever.
Emma González, a descendant of Cubans, knows it like no one else: there are silences which speak volumes.
Originally published in the blog Cubaprofunda.
Crossings
Crossings: Eleven Ways to Be, to Exist and to Enter the “Closet”
May 20, 2012
By: Marta María Ramírez
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Travesías exhibition, one of the collateral exhibitions of the Biennial
Crossings: eleven ways of being, coming out and entering the closet
In this article: 11 Havana Biennial, Art, Havana Biennial, CENESEX, Cuba, Culture, Havana, Manuel Mendive, Mariela Castro Espín, Sexuality, Society
20 May 2012 | 33
By: Marta María Ramírez
11 exponents of the plastic and visual arts from Cuba gathered in a collective exhibition to represent the experience of homosexual people in the public recognition of their sexual preference.
They were joined by Mariela Castro Espín, director of CENESEX, whose idea was not only original, but also part of the curatorship of Travesías, the title of the exhibition, which opened at the Rubén Oliva Gallery in the capital’s Bertold Brecht Cultural Center.
“To understand the stories of suffering and happiness it has been essential to listen. We saw the possibility of telling it through art and the looks of these artists, whom I invited,” said Mariela.
For the Cuban sexologist, who makes her debut as a curator in the visual and plastic arts, “decision-making is always a journey. It is necessary to show what these people experience because their experiences can be very cruel.
Manuel Mendive was the first to enlist. Mariela went on her search to her retreat-study in the rural town of Santa María del Rosario.
“I’m very excited about the idea. It is a challenge to represent a process that can be difficult because of the homophobia that reigns in the world, including in Cuba,” Mendive told me at the time.
The famous plastic artist is accompanied by Adonis Flores, Alejandro Calzada, Carlos Martiel, Elizabeth Ceviño, Humberto Días, I.A., Lázaro Saavedra, Marianela Orozco, Ricardo Rodríguez and Andrés D.Abreu, the latter sharing the curatorship with the sexologist.
“Each artist has communicated in their own way, with their own codes and in the way they interpreted this reality,” said Mariela.
It is not the first time in Cuba that people have created and exposed their perceptions of homosexuality. However, the contribution of Travesías lies in the fact that it is the result of a workshop in which creative people exchanged with gay, lesbian, transgender and heterosexual Cubans in March 2012.
Questioned about the reasons for the choice of plastic and visual arts, the sexologist said that “since the Havana Biennial was coming, there was an opportunity to use it as a communication resource”.
In this sense, D.Abreu pointed out that “art has shown that it is part of that great accumulation of things that make up the imaginary and thought of society. I can’t say that it alone is a transformer, but that it helps the transformation, so you have to take advantage of his possibilities.
“Three spaces for debate were created. One discussed what it felt like and how it was like to be inside the closet, because they fear that society would reject them; another group was for people who had freely decided to be who they are, and a last group was for those who are still in the process, in the journey,” he said.
Travesías, sponsored by the Brownstone Foundation, will be open to the public until next June, as part of the collateral activities of the 11th International Conference of the Red Cross. Havana Biennial and the V Cuban Day Against Homophobia
Mariela Castro lectures in Finland
ANPP Deputy Mariela Castro Espín lectures at the University of Helsinki
May 30, 2018
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews
Deputy Mariela Castro, R, during her keynote address.
Cuban Congresswoman Mariela Castro Espín, director of the National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) of Cuba, gave a keynote speech on Monday at the School of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki, which was attended by about a hundred people.
Among those present were Tarja Halonen, former president of Finland, Eduardo Lazo Pérez, Cuban ambassador, authorities of the Deanery of the aforementioned faculty, as well as professors, students, Cubans living in the Nordic country, members of the Finland-Cuba Friendship Association, journalists and businessmen.
Castro Espín (C), with Cubans living in the Nordic country.
In her presentation entitled “Sexuality education in the social transformation processes of the Cuban Revolution”, the expert from the largest of the Antilles argued how sexuality education was shaped in the social policy of the Revolution from the early stages of the process, and the role of the Communist Party of Cuba and the Federation of Cuban Women in the recognition of sexuality education as the responsibility of the State.
After the remarks by the Director of CENESEX, the former Finnish President, current President of the Board of Directors of the University of Helsinki, took the floor. She praised the Cuban experience in the treatment of the aforementioned issues, explained their historical evolution in Finland and the current role of the United Nations in this matter and thanked the Cuban representative for the conference given.
With members of the friendship with Cuba group.
Those attending the meeting had the opportunity to ask questions and exchange ideas with the Cuban parliamentarian, who received her Doctor Honoris Causa degree in Psychology from the Åbo Akademi University in Turku on May 25
(With information from the Cuban Embassy in Finland).
Support for Gun Control on the Rise
A Mass Killing Filled the Glass. Now it Must Be Emptied
By Manuel E. Yepe
http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/
Exclusive for the daily POR ESTO! of Merida, Mexico.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann.
The shooting that broke out in mid-March at the Parkland student complex in the state of Florida, which killed 17 students and teachers, was greeted in the United States with a sense of fatalism that that the public was destined to become familiar with. While still howling ambulances with their cargo of bodies and survivors in the direction of the hospitals, the authorities of the country, the state and those of the center itself began to make clear their prayers and laments, expressing their deep regret and anguish for what had happened.
A few voices rose to condemn the facts without venturing to blame anyone or anything for the horrible crime. Paul Ryan, a Republican leader in the U.S. Congress and second in the line of presidential succession (after the vice president), warned against unthinking, overly sentimental reactions.
But, surprisingly, something strange happened: the students of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Pre-University in a gathering that they called to that effect, came out against official inaction.
“Every single person here today, all these people, must have been grieving in their homes. But, on the contrary, we are here today united, because if all our government and our president can do is let us know their sorrow and their prayers, we think it is time for the victims to be the motivation for the changes we need to see,” said student Emma Gonzalez in tears and sobs on behalf of everyone.
“To the politicians who remain in their golden seats in the House and Senate, funded by the National Rifle Association (NRA) telling us that nothing could be done to prevent that we call B.S.,” the student leader said.
The broadcast of her speech was cut off, but that last sentence of Emma’s words became the slogan calling for gun control that would lead the plans for an upcoming national student strike and march on Washington.
A substantial article by George Zornick, editor of The Nation, argues that the power of the NRA as a protective shield for the freedom to buy and sell arms in the United States is rapidly being demystified.
As proof, Zornick says that last November in Virginia, the NRA backed Ed Gillespie as a Republican candidate for governor and he was widely defeated. It supported 13 candidates competing fiercely for seats in the state House of Representatives and 12 of them failed, while the other won by a narrow margin.
At the Virginia state level, gun control advocates have been able to obtain the passage of resolutions and measures that have not been passed by the state legislature, although it should be noted that this occurred when the movement was not as strong as it was after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 when the largest pro-arms control groups were formed.
It should also be noted that Democratic politicians, until recently, never spoke out against gun control for fear of the NRA’s wealthy congressional lobby.
“For the characteristics of our ossified political system, and especially with Trump in the White House thanking the NRA for the $30 million it donated to his campaign, the United States will never pass gun control legislation. But while waiting for the time to elect a new congress and a new president, something can be done considering that arms manufacturers value above all other things, even more than human life: money,” Zornick says.
The journalist from The Nation calls on activists to help deal a decisive blow to these traffickers by withdrawing financial or commercial support from their companies until the arms industry becomes an unviable business. In 2013, the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund voted to divest itself of millions of dollars in gun industry investments.. The same was done in 2016 by the New York City Public Employees Pension Fund, which also withdrew funds from other large sporting goods stores that deal in arms.
Today, the arms giants are full of debt and face a decline in consumer demand. Centers such as GoodbyeGunStocks.com have been set up to inform about stockholding entities that trade in arms to guide activists eager to boycott those who do so.
The relentless shootings that kill innocents have filled the cup of resistance of the American citizenry. Its assimilation capacity is running out and if that giant rises it would not be unusual for the arms business to be forced to start a countdown sooner rather than later in the United States and around the world.
May 31, 2018.
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